GERI at the Ageing Research Network Symposium (14 Feb 2025)

11 March 2025

Institutes under the Ageing Research Network, including GERI, came together to tackle the question "Healthy ageing programmes in our hospitals and community: How can we make these work?"

Image: GERI

Healthy ageing programmes in our hospitals and community: How can we make these work? Members of the Ageing Research Network (ARN) – comprising institutes conducting research on ageing in Singapore, including GERI – came together on 14 Feb 2025 to tackle this question at the ARN Symposium, organised by the Centre for Ageing Research & Education (CARE), Duke-NUS Medical School.

Representing GERI at this platform were Dr Woan Shin Tan, Deputy Director of Research and Dr Grace Sum Chi-En, Research Fellow, who were invited to speak about their projects to an audience of researchers, academics and health policymakers.

Dr Tan disseminated findings from GERI’s study on the Geriatric Services Hub (GSH), a national programme that identifies and manages frailty among older adults in the community through a comprehensive care model. Dr Tan was the study’s evaluation lead.

In addition to outlining the novel mixed methods approach used in the GSH evaluation, Dr Tan discussed its implementation experience, its impact on patient outcomes, as well as the team’s insights on how to better ensure the success and sustainability of comprehensive care models for frail older adults. Click here to read findings from the study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Dr Sum and Dr Justin Chew (Consultant, Geriatric Medicine at Tan Tock Seng Hospital) co-presented on an ongoing joint project by GERI and TTSH to implement and evaluate the INFA programme at TTSH. INFA is a nurse-led programme that aims to better coordinate care for mild to moderately frail older persons during and after their hospital stay. Dr Sum and Dr Chew are co-Principal Investigators of this study.

Dr Chew and Dr Sum highlighted how effectiveness research needs to be combined with implementation research to facilitate contextualisation, sustainability and scalability of healthcare programmes. To that end, Dr Sum outlined GERI’s approach – such as applying implementation science frameworks and tools, and strategically specifying implementation strategies – for transparency, tracking adaptations, and programme replicability.

Image: GERI

Image: Duke-NUS CARE